Love Freely | Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

July 8, 2014 7:03 PM

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In my early 20s, I went through Rolfing, a form of deep-tissue bodywork, and I nervously anticipated the fifth session, the one that goes deep into the belly. But instead of gobs of repressed emotional pain, what poured out was love -- waves and waves of love that I'd pushed down due to embarrassment, fears of closeness, and my struggles with my mother.

It felt fantastic to let love flow freely. Compassion, empathy, kindness, liking, affection, cooperation, and altruism are all in our nature, woven into the fabric of human DNA, the most social -- and most loving -- species on the planet. Love is a natural upwelling current inside us all. It doesn't...